The Best Arcade Racing Game Machines

Whether you’re racing a Formula 1 car around an actual racetrack or throwing blue shells at your friends in Mario Kart, arcade games are rooted in the concept of speed and agility. Racing games often incorporate power-ups and extra challenges like boosting or taking special items to increase your chances of winning.

Fast & Furious Super Cars

The Fast and Furious Super Cars arcade machine is an excellent way to bring the thrill of a high-speed chase from the big screen to your own home. While purists may be disappointed by the compact LCD screen and limited number of licensed cars compared to true arcade machines, this is still an entertaining addition to any home entertainment system.

Designed by Raw Thrills, the same company behind the popular Cruis’n series, Fast and Furious Super Cars features real-world vehicles including Ford Mustang GT, Nissan 350Z and Pontiac Fierro as you race around cityscapes in USA and Japan. Players can also collect in-game currency credits to improve the power and performance of their car. One neat feature is the ability to link up to two cabinets so players can compete against each other in a multiplayer race.

If you’re looking for more than just racing though, there are a variety of track kits available to extend the system such as bank turn and rails to increase the difficulty of the track. Another optional add-on is a set of three inflatable stunt poles to boost the action and simulate the feeling of hanging off the side of a moving car as you drift through tight turns or slam on the brakes to perform sharp jumps.

GRID

GRID takes players to a range of real world circuits including the likes of Silverstone and Brands Hatch. It also includes the streets of Havana and San Francisco along with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in its career mode. Each of these city and race track combinations adds to the overall sense of place that the game creates as well as offering a variety of racing experiences.

The visuals in GRID are stunning and the cars are beautifully rendered with a fantastic sense of damage and detail. Bumpers will Racing Game Machine be pushed off and hoods will cave in and these details make for a very immersive experience. The cockpit views are also very good and the sound of the engines roaring has been brilliantly replicated. Codemasters have also nailed the in-car radio which allows drivers to request information from their team-mate such as the gap to the car ahead and their damage level.

GRID Autosport is a great game and despite some niggles it manages to deliver an exceptional pick-up and play racing experience. The career mode is enjoyable with plenty of choice while the handling model is not super-nerdy but does offer a fair challenge to keen drivers. Unlike some recent games it doesn’t have any in-game currencies or pop-up ads which is always a bonus.

Need for Speed

Unlike other racing games at the time, Need for Speed was set in fictional metropolitan cities instead of the traditional race tracks. This was the first game to feature traffic that could be toggled on and off as a factor in gameplay, but even then it wasn’t a major consideration for many gamers.

Developed by EA Black Box and released in 2008, this was the first Need for Speed game to incorporate an open-world setting. It also introduced a heavy focus on story, with players taking on the role of an undercover cop attempting to bust a crime syndicate. It’s a little cheesy and far from the charm of the Fast and Furious franchise, but it’s an enjoyable way to scratch your cop-chase itch.

This was the last Need for Speed title to feature a single manufacturer’s cars, with each vehicle featured in multiple variations. It’s also the first game in the series to allow you to upgrade your car’s performance with a variety of upgrades. It also introduced the damage system, which impacts both the appearance and performance of your car when it collides with obstacles.

Featuring an all-new physics engine, Need for Speed IV was the most advanced game in the series at the time of its release. It allowed you to compete in a series of races on exotic cars around themed track circuits across the world, both against other human opponents and computer-controlled AI drivers.

Formula 1

Formula 1 is a massively expensive sport that pits teams and drivers against each other over the course of a season. Drivers score points for each race they finish, and the team that finishes with the most points summed up wins the constructors championship.

Modern F1 cars are insanely fast – their engines generate up to 1,000 horsepower. They can also reach speeds of up to 212 miles per hour.

F1 2022 is the latest entry in Codemasters’ official series Racing Game Machine of licensed Formula 1 games. The racing is taut and carefully calibrated, making you feel like a Formula 1 driver at your peak.

In addition to speed, Formula 1 cars feature huge brakes and plenty of downforce – which is why they need so much energy to accelerate. As such, they are not easy to drive and require a very specific driving style.

Another important aspect of Formula 1 is the DRS (drag reduction system) which opens the flap on a car’s rear wing to reduce drag and increase top speed. This is activated when you’re within a certain distance of the car ahead of you, and is an essential part of overtaking.

Finally, Formula 1 requires drivers to change tires twice during a race. This is a big difference from most other sim racing titles, where it’s possible to finish a race on the same set of tires you started out with.